Andrea Kremer, NFL Network's chief health and safety correspondent, has been following Darrelle Revis' progress since his anterior cruciate ligament surgery last year. Now Revis is with a new team, having been traded from the New York Jets to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with whom he started his first offseason workouts this month.
"That was the first time I ran out of the tunnel, since I played, you know, Week 3," Revis told Kremer in an interview that aired Monday on "NFL Total Access." "It was electrifying, it really was."
While Revis has almost full mobility in his injured knee, he's still in a rehabilitation program -- this time run by the Bucs. Despite Revis' injury, Bucs general manager Mark Dominik said he began plotting the trade for the All-Pro cornerback soon after he went down with the knee injury in September.
"Quite frankly, it started when he blew out his knee," Dominik said. "I actually went to our director of pro player personnel, Dennis Hickey's office, and I said, 'That could be the reason why he could leave the Jets.' Because I knew what his contract situation was. So when he hurt his knee, I thought that's going to be an out possibility."
However, the Bucs had to get approval from their doctors, who closely examined Revis' knee, before making the trade.
"I think it was a few minutes, just in a separate office, where we just sat there and said, 'You know, this is a big decision for our organization. You know, we're committing a lot of money. We're committing draft choices,' " Dominik said. "Those kind of things. But at the same point, having a chance to even just spend some time with Darrelle, again, knowing who he was and then getting the information back from the doctors that said everything's progressing exactly where he should be at this point."
Said Revis: "They took a big risk. But it's a good risk."
Tuesday's Part II of Kremer's interview: Revis doesn't believe he's damaged goods.
-- Bill Bradley, contributing editor
